Many films fail in some aspect when adapting their stories to literary works. Despite this, Hollywood still continues to tweak these dramas, biographies, poems, and musicals until they have comprised a film that will entertain the tasteless, insipid consumer. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a rare example of a successful film adaption. Even though the variations made by Michael Hoffman are minor when comparing it to other film adaptions that have butchered entire plots of classic pieces, this version is still transformed in aspects regarding the setting and characterization that ultimately shift the mood of the story and make it more welcoming to a modern audience.
Within the first thirty seconds of the movie, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one…show more content… Even though Hoffman does a splendid job in revealing most of the characters in a similar fashion to that of Shakespeare, he uses his own judgment when characterizing Theseus and Hippolyta, the fairies, Puck, and Nick Bottom. By doing this, he differs from the original play and puts his own personal touch on the film. First off, Shakespeare introduced Theseus and Hippolyta as two powerful, majestic characters. With Hoffman’s change of time, they are simply dubbed out to be lackluster characters of royalty and nothing more. Hoffman also mistakes Shakespeare’s innocent, admiring fairies for fractious party dwellers. Also, Hoffman changes the way the audience feels towards Puck simply by the age of the actor he chose. By selecting a middle-aged man to play the role of Puck, Hoffman reformed the character of Puck. Since Hoffman’s character did not possess the innocence that is associated with the adolescent boys, as Shakespeare’s Puck did, the cinematic version loses some playfulness and “magic.” Last but not least is the character Nick Bottom. Hoffman’s adaptation of Bottom is seemingly from Shakespeare’s version. Hoffman strives to make it known that Bottom is a self-conscious, unsure person. Hoffman even creates an incident original to his film that supports the previous statement. On the other hand, Shakespeare’s Bottom presents himself as a confident,